2010 and All That

Happy New Year to one and all.

Sylvia writing.We had a great Christmas in the UK despite the BA threatened air strikes which prompted me to book Easyjet and forego the BA flight until next year, then had Easyjet canceling our outward flight from Faro due to UK snow and having to book yet another flight with Monarch! Cost over £1000 all in all although we will get £93 back from Easyjet.....eventually. But the expense was worth it.
Before we headed for Faro we hosted Fraser's sister Jan and partner John overnight as they were traveling by car down to Lagos for the Christmas period.We then met up briefly with John's son Josh, Fraser's niece Hannah and husband Steve and their two sons Finlay and Ruben, when they arrived at Faro Airport to spend Christmas with Jan and John.
Then having deposited Scraps into the capable hands of Steve, Jenny and Skaigh we flew to the UK in time to see the snowy landscape!
We stayed with my sister in Blackheath and caught up with family chat and shopping before heading for James and Adela's in Willesden Green for a Czech style Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day. Richard and Jo were there too so we had complete family, thoroughly spoilt with oodles of prezzies, great food, booze and lots of laughter and games in a totally chilled atmosphere. Just how Christmas should be.
Boxing Day we decamped to Richard and Jo's flat for the day, while James and Adela headed off to Wiltshire and after a lovely pub lunch treat and watching the latest Wallace and Grommet movie on TV (which was ace) we topped off the festive season by going out in the evening to see Avatar in 3D. Mind blowing and thoroughly enjoyable. More fairy tale with allegorical storyline than science fiction and a real visual delight.
So a huge thank you to the boys and their girls for looking after us so well.

The day after I met up with brothers, inlaws and family at my sisters house to celebrate our Mum's birthday.

Brother Dennis, me, Sister Pat and Brother Don with Great Nephews Greg, Kieran and Nicholas and Great Nieces Kelly Marie and Caitlin.

I met great - nieces and nephews that I have rarely seen and the house was packed with my grown up niece and nephews and it was a rowdy and raucous event. Just like always!!!! My best friend from College days and the boys' godmother...Malc come up to London to share in the bustle and stay over! So Happy Birthday Mum!

We had a couple of days with my sister to re-coup and be spoiled even more, before we headed back to rainy Faro to see how Scraps had fared without us (which was very well indeed) and to spend New Year with friends Steve and Jenny........ and Jan and Martin, whom I hadn't seen for 9 years! Watched the fireworks on Albufeira beach, despite the rain. So all in all a lovely Festive Season and lots of thanks to Steve and Jenny for looking after Scraps and us so well.
Meanwhile back in London the boys and girls spent New Year dressed as superheros and notable characters for what looked like a great fancy dress bash. Guess the characters!
I miss them all already!
Handing over to Fraser now for the rest of the news about the start of our new year.

Came back to Portugal to discover it was still raining (a lot) and still cold. The field resembled a rice paddy - minus the rice and water buffaloes. The fruit trees were standing in water as well and we can only hope they recover.

Two weeks ago Sylvi spotted this -
on the local e-want adds. Another foundling needing a home, so.... convincing ourselves that what Scraps really needed was a playmate, we brought him home. He's got blue eyes and will probably grow to be larger than Scraps (which she should bear in mind when she's bullying him) and has pale blue eyes. As he's a little bit of a gangster he's been dubbed Bugsy, after Bugsy Malone... The two of them seem to be bonding well and he's growing apace.

And yes, Scraps is sucking her foot in that last pic... Bugsy is much more laid-back than Scraps. He's also an accomplished thief and escape artist. Interesting times ahead, methinks.
A lot of time has been spent this month, framing my paintings for a one man show in March at the Casa Cultura in Santa Comba Dao, just north of here. I don't expect, knowing how tight money is, to sell much - any would be good - but it's good to give them an airing and see what people think of what I do.
On Sunday we went up to Steve and Vanessa's Village for the St. Sebastian day airing of religious statues accompanied by the local Philharmonia -marching band. St. Sebastion was well peppered with arrows, one of which looked excrutiatingly painful!



This week Steve, Vanessa and João Pedro are pruning the Olive trees with a bit of help from us. We're hoping to plant some more trees in February as the ground dries up a bit.
That's about it for this month. Stay tuned